Transubstantiation

Transubstantiation. In Catholic theology of the eucharist, the change of the substance (underlying reality) of the bread and wine into the substance of the body and blood of Christ, leaving the ‘accidents’ (i.e. the appearances of the bread and wine) intact, so that the faithful do not literally touch Christ's body. The term was recognized at the Lateran Council of 1215, and was formally defined at Trent in 1551. The E. Church entertains an essentially identical doctrine to transubstantiation, but many modern Orthodox theologians avoid the term because of its associations with Latin scholasticism.

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transubstantiation

transubstantiation Belief accepted by the Roman Catholic Church that, during the prayer of consecration at the Mass (the Eucharist), the ‘substance’ of the bread and wine is changed into the ‘substance’ of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, while the ‘accidents’ (the outward forms of bread and wine) remain unchanged. The doctrine was defined at the Lateran Council of 1215. The definition involving ‘substance’ and ‘accidents’ was rejected by the architects of the Reformation.

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transubstantiation

transubstantiation the conversion of the substance of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ at consecration, only the appearances of bread and wine still remaining. The belief was defined at the Lateran Council of 1215, based on Aristotelian theories on the nature of ‘substance’, and is the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church; the word itself has been used from the mid 16th century. It was rejected by Luther, Zwingli, and other Protestant reformers.

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transubstantiation

tran·sub·stan·ti·a·tion
/ ˌtransəbˌstanchēˈāshən/
•
n. Christian Theol.
(esp. in the Roman Catholic Church) the conversion of the substance of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ at consecration, only the appearances of bread and wine still remaining. ∎ formal
a change in the form or substance of something.

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